By Ranjona Banerji
What was the top story the week? It could have been the Union Budget. It should have been the pandemic and India’s vaccination process. It could have been an unexpected return to journalism at the sites of farmers’ protests.
However, given the state of the Indian media and the Indian Government, obviously it was a series of tweets in support of the farmers’ protests by a very few international celebrities and personalities.
Pop star Rihanna set it off by asking “Why aren’t we talking about this”, adding the hashtag “Farmers Protests” and linking a CNN article about the Indian government cutting off the internet at protest sites.
That was enough. You would imagine, between the Government of India and the Indian media, that war had been declared on India by the World of Popular Music.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-55931894
https://edition.cnn.com/2021/02/04/world/rihanna-farmer-protests-indian-government-trnd/index.html
Then it got weirder. The world’s most famous climate activist Greta Thunberg also tweeted in support of India’s farmers. Between pop stars and Swedish teenagers, the Indian state was now in a state of high peril according to the Ministry of External Affairs and India’s lapdog media.
The first pincer attack came from India’s top nationalist and massive Modi-BJP admirer Kangana Ranaut who was ready with her name-calling and abuse. Taking their cue from the actress, the Ministry of External Affairs got together a long note on propaganda against India, an international conspiracy to undermine India’s sovereignty and so on. The captive media quickly amplified this because who in the Indian mainstream media has the courage to question whether a couple of tweets undermined India’s sovereignty.
On the other flank, the Ministry of Captive Celebrities put together a couple of tweets with some minor wording differences and sent them out to India’s cricketers, nightingales and film stars. These almost identical tweets were obediently sent out into the public battlefield by Sachin Tendulkar, Ravi Shastri, Lata Mangeshkar and the rest.
https://thewire.in/sport/sachin-tendulkar-virat-kohli-pt-usha-farmers-protests-rihanna
The Delhi Police, not far behind in this totalitarian mess, filed a case against a “toolkit” used by human rights activists worldwide, which was tweeted by Thunberg, a Swedish citizen. The toolkit has been charged with “criminal conspiracy”, “promoting enmity”.
https://www.tribuneindia.com/news/world/delhi-police-book-greta-thunberg-on-charges-of-criminal-conspiracy-promoting-enmity-207941
Even as the Government of India is in a running battle with Twitter to take down handles and tweets which support India’s farmers and has threatened the social media site with jail etc, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey appears to have thrown his hat into the ring. Not in the way the GoI would have hoped.
This is not, I must make clear, a farce or some satirical allegory. This is India’s reality.
And the “war” has been waged by the Indian state against India’s farmers and anyone who supports them. The bulk of the Indian media, once again largely television, is the Modi government’s proud accelerator of propaganda.
It is ironic of course that a government which has built itself up on propaganda accuses others of it. On the other hand, who but a propagandist would understand propaganda.
At the reality end of our lives, the barricades against farmers entering Delhi remain. Roads are dug up. Nails hammered into remaining roads. Sedition charges filed against journalists. Arrests and jail.
The Covid-19 vaccination drive has not progressed as far as possible. Again this depends on what you read or follow. The Covishield-Covaxin problem remains.
India’s drug regulators are all right, as we have seen, with pushing India’s medical community into an undeclared Phase 3 trial for Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin, but need more information from Pfizer which has finished and published all its trials!
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How low the Indian media can sink into misogyny is demonstrated by this screenshot from a Times Now show to “shame” Rihanna by pulling out some random nonsense about her lifestyle.
There has been much worse.
Frankly, living in a fictional farce would be better.
Ranjona Banerji is a senior journalist and commentator. She is also Consulting Editor, MxMIndia. Her views here are person